Indiana pilots call drones for hire a growing threat

Indiana pilots call drones for hire a growing threat

A hidden camera investigation from the Call 6 Investigators found a growing threat from illegal business flights of drones nationwide,
prompting concerns from Indianapolis pilots and calls for action in Congress.

While the Federal Aviation Administration has not approved a single drone flight for business purposes anywhere in the country, the Call 6
Investigators found many businesses and entrepreneurs flying drones for aerial photography, including several that advertise drone flights in Indiana.

People on ATS keep posting about the threat from the Government using drones to invade privacy, kill people, etc - but these concerns are pretty
marginal compared to the real uses drones are being put to every day by their fellow citizens.

The ease of use of drones means they can be almost trivially easy to set up with a camera to do anything from reasonably legitimate aerial surveying
to less salubrious seeing who is sunbathing naked in their own back yards.

And then there is the safety issue - radio controlled model aircraft are essentially just drones, and have operated without much incident. But they
are almost always operated by groups of like minded indivuals and clubs, who are aware of where and how they can operate - especialy away from "real"
aircraft and with height limitations.

Not so the surge of new users - who can be anybody from real eastate agents to the neighbourhood pervert, and blithely fly wherever they want.

Drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), are only legal for hobbyists to fly under 400 feet of altitude and away from airports and populated
areas, according to standing FAA rule s. The agency has ruled that any time money changes hands or profits are generated from flying a drone, those
hobbyist rules no longer allow such flights.

The Call 6 Investigators requested enforcement documents, never before released by FAA, showing a rising number of complaints about drones surprising
manned aircraft pilots in the air. The documents also show the FAA frequently issuing cease and desist letters or other warnings to drone services
found to be advertising flights for hire, usually to produce aerial photography.

Powered by the latest microtechnology and driven by billions in defense industry and commercial research dollars, domestic drones are poised for
widespread expansion into U.S. airspace once regulation catches up with reality.

That is scheduled to begin in late 2015, when the U.S. government starts issuing commercial drone permits.

Originally posted by tinhattribunal
i have thought that drones would be great for pizza deliveries.
and newspapers.

Sure, you can do that.

But it's like inventing the car and somebody asking you what you can do with it, and you say 'hmm, dunno, I guess you could deliver pizzas with
it.'

Drones are flying cars. Most drones aren't that big, but they easily could be. They are affordable. They are safe. The last major technical problem
to solve was all the automated piloting stuff, especially the autobalancing. Now computers are powerful enough at a small enough size and cost and the
software has all been made as is out there in active, real world use.

Flying cars are real now; it's just that nobody is allowed to use them as flying cars.

Originally posted by tinhattribunal
i have thought that drones would be great for pizza deliveries.
and newspapers.

/rant
I could possibly see that happening if its possible to secure the bots transactions but the first militarized drone I see hovering or rolling over my
property is a problem. Now I dont care if the military or public uses drones for defense or peaceful purposes, but the last thing anyone wants to see
is armed drones being used for attacks. Imagine some pissed foreign student, (because apparently its all the damn rage to get a visa and attack my
homeland and get a free education in chemistry and engineering while their at it) using a "drone" to attack our government buildings or monetary
system, a grocery store or even just a large gathering. Or a smart programmer who figures out a way to attach some sort of data hack to something
mobile/ remote controlled. How would you even find those people? Howabout a drone that just sits and gathers transmitted data from microchips in your
wallpaper? Hmm? scary enough?

When i say all this Im trying to think of everyone here in my country, that means everyone, hobbyists, military, public, security agencies and
government alike because they're all my people. I dont want drones being used harmfully on any body.

A big slap in the face is actually to hobbyists. because those people are using these things for fun and harmless entertainment. imagine building a
model helicopter with your kids and dropping it on the ground so you two can have some fun flying it around your yard, the next thing you know you got
pd pulling up asking you for an operators license or the dhs putting you on some suspected terrorist list just because you own a few toys. Can you see
how far that can go? Folks do realise that people are accidently shot because some stuff looks so real that it passes for a weapon right?

And yea you know what? Privacy, lets talk about privacy for second. The government already has that whole surveillance thing happening, and you cant
even fly without security checking your damn nutsack as it is, thats on top of the current law enforcement patrolling the streets 24/7. Why in sam
hell would anyone want to lose any more privacy than they already have? I mean damn , why not just set up cameras in peoples #ing homes so they can
watch you banging your old lady at night. Oh I forgot, people already do this # voluntarily with smartphones, ipads, microphones, cams and macs then
upload all their privacy willingly and call it social networking. Has the world lost its mind?... seriously.

Then you got the press who might argue that visual or audio mounted drones are only being used for the news and claim freedom of the press and all
that. Watch one of those news reports where they are in a helicopter zooming into peoples yards n #. Its out there. Should we even say paparazi? Now
imagine drones all over the country (because they're smaller and cheaper to make) doing the same damn thing. And what about the law who can already
mount sensors to aerial equipment. Man? Thats all an aerial SEARCH.

Do you guys see what Im getting at here? #s already complicated and screwed up as it is. Life cant be this full of # my people. Who would want to live
like this? I demand that peoples rights, privacy and well being are protected dammit.

/rant off
sorry if I went off topic anywhere. It happens.

It might be cool to have a drone deliver pizza though. lol I cant lie.

Of course pilots are upset about this, aerial photography is how many of them make their money.
When I was taking flight training that was one of the side jobs that my instructor did to pay for his personal flight time and training. A Commercial
License is often the second license that someone will apply for for this reason.

Originally posted by ManOfHart
I believe private drone pilots will be hired to fly contraband across land areas.

No risk involved to shipper party or receiving party.

Just a switch to drop a payload at a set GPS coordinates.

This is going to be big.

You are probably right - but why bother hiring a "pilot" - just do it yourself - the point of modern drones is often their ease of use - you don't
even need to pilot the more advanced ones at all - just programme way-points on google-maps!

Not only that but they are very inexpensive to fly, fuel, and maintain compared to a piloted aircraft.
There is no way that conventional pilots can compete with this, and its going to hit small commercial pilots in the pocketbook big time.

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but quite a number of crop circles ended up being hoaxes that where done by private commercial
pilots who then sold flight time to take people on flights over, and to photograph the circles by air. That should tell you what a cut-throat business
that it is trying to make money as a pilot.

The first time a small plane crashes (hopefully with no injuries) because of a collision with a drone it will put the issue before the world's
attention. Private planes fly very low, and drones using the same airspace are a real-time problem. With the commerical aspects of drones ramping up
this is becoming like one of those "rock and a hard place" issues, and the inevitable crash of a small plane will make it actionable in several
different contexts of the word.

why do i suspect one of the uses "private corporations" have/will use these drones for is spying on their employee's private lives? just imagine
going into work one morning and called into the office. "Jim we have noticed a trend that you like to go out and party after work, this can make the
company look bad as well as we are sure that due to this you are not getting enough rest and so we aren't getting as much work out of you as we
could. we "demand" that you stop all this partying or we will have to let you go". or "Jack we have noticed a bad trend that you are shopping too
much at our competitors, this needs to stop as if people notice our own employees buy competitor's products, they will think that the competitor has
a better product, this MUST stop".

or even "we have been watching you and we see that you are eating too much fast food, and you are not going to
the gym as frequently as we would like, if this "hazardous" behavior continues we will have to let you go as you are becoming too much of an
insurance risk for us".

not to mention i am sure that employers and insurance companies would also use this for spying on people who are injured or off on medical leave as
they try to "prove" you are being fraudulent in your claims. this is something they already do. but the use of "drones" would make it much harder
to spot as well as since in the end i'm sure they would be cheaper than "investigators" staking you out would allow them almost continuous 24/7
coverage of you.

I have a drone in my cupboard.
It's highly maneuverable.Qaud rotor, takes off from the ground at the touch of a button, is pretty much silent, too small to show on radar, can hover
stationary independently, has a 720p HD camera, can be controlled remotely with an iPad or even iPhone, the camera feed can be recorded and can fly to
a height of 50 metres.
Parrot AR Drone
Gave it to my daughter for Christmas cost $300 Australian at dick smiths (like radio shack)

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